I've just purchased an 1883 authentic gold plated racketeer nickel off ebay!

how is it denial??!!?! I love this coin. Is that a problem??

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I have not added my two cents yet and I am going to lay them out bluntly and hopefully not be to rude in the process.
SGS is ruining our hobby by passing off coins that are F12 as MS60. That is tricking many people into it unknowingly. But you knew SGS is a total scamming, piece of crap and they do business like a SOB!!!
But no you decide to support them by buying a 10 dollar coin for 30 something dollars. So you say you are buying the coin not the slab?!? Actually you just paid 20 something bucks for a 50 cent piece of plastic. That is 1) STUPID and 2) Distasteful.
And you do so after talking so much crap about them, then you support them by purchasing from them?!? Terrible, shameless, and extremely hypocritical.
It is not even a nickel that was plated in the 19th century!

Freaky

 

$33 could have bought a nice, educational coin book. The book might be a general book on coins or it might be written about some specific area of coin collecting - grading, counterfeit detection, Liberty Nickels, etc. Buying a coin book that could teach you something worthwhile would have been a much, much better use of $33 than lining the pockets of a self-slabber that preys on the coin collecting public and gives our hobby a black eye.

 

No, it's not a problem. If you're happy with your purchase then who cares what anyone else thinks. I feel that you could have found the same coin for a better price if you shopped around a little more, but if you're happy...then enjoy your coin.

 

Yes you are correct. My wallet isn't 33 dollars lighter.

 

Note here that the same company has another identical item on ebay now. If one was good, a second one should be great.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1883-P-UNCIRCUL...temQQimsxZ20081215?IMSfp=TL081215116006r17127

Maybe Isaiah can get a second one at a lower price and amortize his paid costs down to a more reasonable amount.

 

OOoooooooohhhhh!!! This new one is also a heavily-circulated MS-60.

 

I was thinking it but forgot to point out that most (probably not all) "genuine" Racketeer Nickels had reeds filed into the edges. To my limited knowledge the modern recreations don't have this feature. Isaiah, does yours?

A google search doesn't come up with any genuine examples of these nickels. Personally I think that no more that a few dozen or so were made by Tatum and others and the plated nickels are more an urban legend than reality.

 

Unreal...

 

This thread just goes to demonstrate the old saying "A fool and his money are soon parted".

 

I thought the common knowledge was that after Tatum was caught, many people began to flood the place with gold plated V Nickels to the point where it is next to impossible to ID whether or not a nickel was plated by Tatum.

 

Sometimes "common knowledge" = "urban legend"

Does anybody have or know of any reference that gives more detailed information on these nickels? How many were made? Where were they passed? Was anybody other than Tatum prosecuted? Are there any contemporary examples still around, with provenance? Has any major auction house ever sold a genuine example?

I did find one reference that said a certain jeweler made a number of them and sold them as jewelry items for 35 cents each, but that was shortly after 1883.

What date did production of the 1883 "Cents" version begin?

 

He opened himself up to the criticism when he askeg "what do you think?" in the OP. I personally think that the intent of this post was to "stir the bees nest" and he is having a good chuckle at the result.

Richard

 

I have to admit that is true. As stated if he likes the coin and the price so be it.

 

:thumb:

 

I've heard people say that the "Cents" Variety went into production in September, but that seems quite late to me given the mintage. I would assume late Spring or Summer at the latest, the mintage of the "cents" coins was around 16 Million, and the highest mintage of any 19th century nickel was 26 Million.

 

Tatum was never caught, Tatum never existed. No contemporary records have ever been found of a Josh Tatum having been arrested let alone tried for passing gold plated nickels. In fact I don't believe any records have been found of anyone being charged with such a crime. The whole Josh Tatum story is a numismatic urban legend

And yet another fiction because the use of the term Josh, meaning to trick or fool, dates back to the 1830's, fifty years before the Rackateer nickel.

 

This thread needs a serious case of:

 

SGS MS-60?? That's like a VG-8! I wonder what an SGS VG-8 would look like, worn down to nothing and half the original size??
Anyhow, The gold plated nickel is a neat item. I'd like to just buy a raw one to keep in my pocket though. Definitely a conversation piece.